Sometimes By Moonlight Read Online Free PDF Page A

behind him, more riders approached, wearing the same colors. Steely black clouds swirled overhead, giving the whole painting an ominous feel.
     
    “Yikes,” I said.
     
    “It is your turn.” Marie-Rose tapped me on the shoulder. Her eyes were red and raw.
     
    “Geez. Are you okay?”
     
    “ Oui ,” she said, hurrying off before I could comfort her.
     
    “Locke? Move along.” Mrs. Lemmon beckoned me from the library doorway. “We already have your parents on the line.”
     
    “My dad and stepmom, you mean,” I muttered.
     
    I took a seat at the table in front of the monitor and Honeybun and Dad came up on the screen. I could tell from Dad’s flannel pajamas and stick-uppy hair it was morning there. Honeybun was wearing a thick bathrobe with a lacy collar, but she was in full make-up, of course. They were talking to each other, their expressions very serious.
     
    “Hey,” I said, giving a little wave. “It’s me.”
     
    They looked up, a little startled. “Well, hello!” Honeybun started off, shooting me a dazzling smile via Internet. “How is everything, Shelby dear?”
     
    “Fine,” I said, fully aware that complaining about anything at Steinfelder was totally pointless, and it wasn’t like I was going to tell them about Austin, of course. “It’s, you know, snowing again. It does that a lot here.”
     
    Dad adjusted his little round glasses, staring into the webcam. “Hi,” he said, awkwardly waving. “It’s been, ah, quiet, without you.”
     
    I just nodded.
     
    “Are you making friends?” Honeybun’s voice shifted into its higher register. “Lots of nice girls there, right?”
     
    “Sure.”
     
    Dad cleared his throat. “We, ah, have some news,” he said, staring uncomfortably into the webcam again. “It affects the holidays.”
     
    Oh, god. Christmas break. My mind whirled. They didn’t want to meet up in Antigua after all. We were just going to spend a lame holiday at home. Nice.
     
    “What your father is trying to say is that—” Honeybun suddenly clamped a hand over her own mouth. “Oh, excuse me,” she mumbled, rushing out of the frame.
     
    Dad glanced after Honeybun, then back at the camera. “Ah… Shelby, we were thinking that maybe it would be easier to have you stay at the school over the holidays this year.”
     
    “What? Trapped here in this hell hole?” Blood rushed to my head. “You don’t want to get together? You don’t want to see me for Christmas? You’re just going to abandon me! Dad, this place—-”
     
    “Okay, now. Calm down.”
     
    “Dad! I can’t believe that Honeybun has finally succeeded in brainwashing you!  I can’t believe she’s—”
     
    “Pregnant.”
     
    “What?” The world fell away around me. I stumbled for something to say.
     
    “We’re, ah, going to be welcoming a baby.” There was no mistaking the pride on Dad’s face. “You’re going to be a big sister.”
     
    Big sister. My mind whirled around that factoid. Big sister to the spawn of Honeybun .
     
    “So our Caribbean trip is out of the question, unfortunately. It’s a high-risk pregnancy. Priscilla’s probably going to be on bed rest for most of it.”
     
    “I could still come home,” I said. “Maybe I could help.”
     
    “I think,” Dad replied, “that to keep the stress down for everyone, it’s best to have you stay put.”
     
    “But we won’t be together,” I said, surprised by the sadness I was feeling. “It won’t be like a real Christmas.”
     
    “A real Christmas?” Dad shook his head. “Last Christmas you left our family dinner to attend a house party and the police brought you home. And do I have to remind you of your gift to Priscilla?”
     
    I shook my head. I knew the Plastic Surgery Horrors Photo Book had scared the crap out of Honeybun and nearly ruined her love of medical self-improvement.
     
    “It’s just this one time,” Dad said, his eyes pleading. “Surely, there will be other students who’ll stay